*TA Roanoke, Virginia I-81 Exit 150 Will PERMANENTLY Close*

TravelCenters of America at Virginia’s I-81 Exit 150 will permanently close at 4 p.m. Nov. 15

The Virginia Department of Transportation has acquired the location for a project to reduce congestion and improve safety at the exit. The effort is intended to improve the intersection and northbound movements to and from I-81 that directly affect Route 11, Route 220 and Route 220 Alternative.

The $46.75 million project will begin this spring and should be completed by Fall 2017.

The stop has 129 parking spaces that will be lost, which likely will add to the already exiting parking problems on I-81. 

Oh wow I spent countless nights at that place. Ran I-81 a million times.

R.I.P. T/A

Yep, that`s a bummer. I spent a few nights there too. Oh well, so it goes, but, taking away parking doesn`t seem like a good idea. I could rant about the issues I had trying to find a place to park near Florence, KY tonight, but, it will do no good.

That TA has a special place in my memory bank. It was there that I picked up an abandoned truck and began my very first solo run. I remember being amazed looking around at all those tractor/trailer rigs and thinking "how in the world will I ever be able to park one of these things in a place like this?"

Since then it seems I've run through Virginia on I-81 a thousand times, spent the night at that stop many of those times. It was there that I used TA's reserved parking system for the first time. I was on one of those runs I documented with my daughters - we were running late into the night and I knew I could make it to Roanoke but also knew it would be jam tight with trucks. My daughter called them for me, gave them my card information, and when we got there we had the only available parking spot sitting there waiting on us.

Ungh. I'm all for improving traffic flow, especially in notoriously bad areas, but not at the expense of truck parking. Particularly not at the expense of truck parking on the east coast. We need more truck stops, and bigger truck stops, not fewer. And more of them near major metro areas, NIMBYs be damned. You want all those toys and gadgets and edibles and whatnot? Then be prepared to deal with the sight of the big smelly trucks that bring them to you.

Re-fueled there once and stayed the night too with a trainee helping him get probably the last parking spot. It was tight there, to say the least! Right at the entrance to the parking area, a tractor had its entire driver-side front fender and hood torn away. We were told that it had happened about two hours earlier when a new driver, on his second day as a solo, failed to square off his turn to the right and hooked the truck with his trailer as he passed rolled past. Not a happy day for either of those drivers!

I used to live in Roanoke. I just dont understand how this is a good idea. Not only will it hurt the truckers but also the employees who work there.

Just a reminder that this location is now PERMANENTLY closed.

Just a reminder that this location is now PERMANENTLY closed.

Boooooo